At SIOR event, developers urge brokers to broaden their horizons

Originally posted on Real Estate NJ

“As tenants adopt a more regional approach to industrial space, New Jersey brokers must do the same and expand their focus to the Lehigh Valley and other neighboring markets.

That was the message from developers last week during an event hosted by the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, which highlighted a major shift by users of warehouse and logistics space. Brokers now have an opportunity to provide their clients with additional options beyond the core submarkets of northern and central New Jersey, they said, noting that many regional tenants have already grown comfortable with casting a wider net.

“I think it’s incumbent on everybody,” said Jim Petrucci, the president of J.G. Petrucci Co. Inc. “If you’re a North Jersey broker and you’ve never traveled across 80 or 78 to figure out what’s going on on the other side, you’re really missing something. I think you need to, at this point.”

Both Petrucci and Josh Adler, principal with Adler Development, said tenants in recent years have explored eastern Pennsylvania as a lower-cost alternative to New Jersey’s Exit 8A submarket…”